Oct. 23, 2010
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South Carolina 21 Vanderbilt 7
October 23, 2010
Vanderbilt Head Coach Robbie Caldwell
Opening statement:
“We didn’t get it done. We could have done a lot better. I’m really proud of our defense. They did a great job getting after them. Offensively, we moved the ball in the first half. We thought we had some things going but they made some adjustments and shut us down. I’m very disappointed in that aspect of it. We made a snafu early in the game in the special teams. They were supposed to execute a fake punt and it was called off and our punter was talking to the official and I guess the official asked him what foot he was kicking with. It fortunately didn’t hurt us. The kicking game looked pretty good and we punted well after that. We got them in a hole and I’m proud of that aspect. “We had a very poor performance in the second half, offensively. It’s disappointing. We are going to have to do some things so we are prepared and ready to go. It was a great comeback from last week as far as a defensive effort. We played a good football team tonight and had a chance to beat them. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. There’s no excuses.”
On South Carolina’s defensive adjustments:
“They loaded up the front and kept moving constantly. We had a true freshman center in there. We couldn’t get the ball off in time and missed the snap-count, that’s what all that was. He did a good job, considering he’s a freshman. The game pace was just fast for him.”
On the protection schemes:
“Well, we tried every protection we had. Slide, gap, the roll out. We had balls swatted, we didn’t get open. First half, we did some nice things. After the first half we did not play very well. I don’t want to overreact until I see the tape but I’m disappointed in that aspect of it. It’s taking some time. When I jumped in it was already laid out. We still have some great opportunities ahead of us. The season is not over by any means. We have some good young talent.”
On trying to stop the run:
“We blew some assignments in there. Some of it was from fatigue. Our defense played great. We did better than most people played them all year long.”
On the positives:
“Defensively, very positive. After last week, this was fantastic. T.J. Greenstone got back in for help. Special teams stepped up and playing well. We made some progress. Kickoff return team did not do very well. They did a good job shutting that down. We will have to make some tweaks.”
Vanderbilt Player Quotes
Redshirt Freshman Defensive End Walker May
On the blocked field goal:
“It was a big point in the game. It was really fun. It was a big play and it was fun to be a part of.”
On the second half defensive struggles:
“I believe they went to a fast-paced offense there for a little bit. As a defensive unit on the field, we weren’t always able to see the calls on the field. That kind of hurt us as we got into the wrong position or the wrong place every once in a while. “
On getting after Garcia:
“We were definitely coming after him and it was a lot of fun to be a part of.”
Senior Linebacker John Stokes
On the offensive struggles:
“It’s tough. It’s frustrating. Football’s a tough game. You don’t just need one side of the ball playing well. You need both sides playing well. The defense did some good things and the offense had a couple bright moments. We don’t watch what’s going on with the offense. When they set the ball down and they have it, we go out there and try to stop them.”
On SC’s big plays in the second half:
“They had a couple big plays on us at the end, but I was proud of our guys for how hard we played. We thought we had them figured out and then they got into a two minute type of offense, changing different personnel, getting different guys on the field, and they caught us off guard.”
On SC’s late first half touchdown:
“That was really tough going into the half. We had the momentum. We were playing well on both sides of the ball and they got us. That definitely hurt a lot. We came back and battled in the second half and had chances, but we have to stop them in that situation.”
Redshirt Sophomore Wide Receiver John Cole
On Vandy’s first half scoring drive:
“It was a good drive for us and showed what we could do. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get another drive like that. It was big in the first half to get that done, but unfortunately we couldn’t continue it.”
On the second half offensive struggles:
“They were getting some pressure on the quarterback, but really things just weren’t clicking.”
South Carolina Player Quotes
Defensive tackle Travian Robertson
On the game:
“Well we knew we could run the ball. At first when we started scrambling a lot, I started playing better myself. We kind of played bad. We knew we had to rebound.”
On not recovering Vanderbilt’s fumble:
“When it fell I tried to reach for it then it bounced off someone else’s foot and I didn’t see it anymore. I should have gotten it. I was so mad that I didn’t get it. It was an opportunity I didn’t take advantage of.”
On the team’s prospects against Florida:
“We have to keep going. We have to take it game by game. Just let everything fall in place. Take care of our next game and when the opportunity comes we have to take advantage of it.
Wide receiver Tori Gurley
On the game:
“It was a blessing. My mother was sick. I dedicated this game to her. I hope she was watching. I just tried to go out and play my part. I’m happy we won.”
On improvements at the wide receiver position:
“We have multiple guys that can get the job done and tonight was just my night. I grabbed the opportunity by the horns and didn’t let go.”
On his availability:
“Coach Spurrier and Junior and the coordinators did a great job of reading Vandy’s defense. They put everybody in position to make plays and tonight I was just the guy with the high hat.”
Wide receiver Alshon Jeffery
On the final touchdown:
“I don’t even know what happened. I just saw the scramble and went deep.”
Quarterback Stephen Garcia
On Vanderbilt’s early success:
“They were running the same defense throughout the game. Three zone blitz. They were blitzing us a lot. I think we just finally learned how to pick it up.”
On Tori Gurley:
“I just saw him out there one on one and just threw it to him. He made the rest happen.”
On third down conversions:
“I think the big difference from this year as opposed to last year is we’re not in third and fifteens, third in twenties like we were last year. We had a lot of sacks last year. This year is a lot more manageable third downs and we’re making the most of it.”
South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier
Opening statement:
“It was good night for the Gamecocks, we are very happy to have won the game. A lot of guys played really well tonight. Brian Maddox made some really nice runs. Stephen Garcia hit some passes, although a lot of them were short. We got the big one with Alshon Jeffery at the end to sort of put it away.
“Our defense played outstanding tonight. We still can’t get a turnover but we can force a bunch of punts, which we haven’t been doing. It was a wonderful night for the defense. We had the ball a lot, made a lot of plays. “
“We didn’t play very smart at times, with the wide receiver holding penalties. We’re tired of those. It could have cost us the game, but it didn’t.
“We made a bunch of third downs. Vandy plays us tough all the time. We were fortunate to get a break or two here and there.
“We had a field goal blocked, but we’re happy we won the second half. We have not played the second half well at all in our road losses, but we actually won the second half here tonight. We need to try to continue that if we’re going to have a big year. We are happy to get out of here with a victory.”
On Brian Maddox’s play tonight:
“He did excellent. Kenny (Miles) just couldn’t get a hole tonight. We didn’t block very well when Kenny was in there, or he would cut right into one, but Kenny couldn’t catch a break. But I feel bad for Kenny. When Brian got his chance, he was making things happen. He ended with 149 yards. He got a game ball, he and Alshon (Jeffery). Stephen, statistically, was very good, I need to go back and give him one after seeing these stats.
“We had to punt seven times, and I think that was the lowest we punted all year. Our defense forced nine punts and that was instrumental in the victory. “
On the possibility of using Marcus Lattimore:
“He wasn’t 100 percent tonight. Coach Graham said he wasn’t really ready to play. We felt like we needed to hold him out.”
On the touchdown pass to close out the first half:
“I think it was big, we didn’t have anything going. We used our two timeouts there, that’s why it’s important to save those. We were able to get the ball back and we scrambled. We scored two touchdowns on scramble plays, the one to Tori Gurley at the end of the half and then one to Alshon. We don’t hit a lot of scramble plays, so that was neat. That wasn’t the way it was drawn up but our guys made plays. Stephen made a play, kept the ball alive and Tori and Alshon came down with the catches.”
